A rampant rumor emerged on Friday that Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski was on the verge of potentially being traded. On Saturday, Gronk addressed this situation while talking to reporters at a youth football camp.
“It just shows how much fakes news is out there,” Gronkowski told reporters, via CBS Boston. “Hashtag fake news, that’s all I know. It’s true. It exists. See it all the time about me. It’s wild.”
Gronkowski was asked about a specific rumor that coach Bill Belichick had agreed to trade Gronk, but that quarterback Tom Brady threatened to retire if it happened, prompting owner Robert Kraft to block the move.
“What a nice guy,” Gronkowski joked about Brady. “But I haven’t talked to him. I didn’t even know about it until last night. Fake news.”
While Friday’s news was fake, Gronkowski didn’t seem to know whether a trade could eventually happen.
“I have no clue,” Gronkowski said.
He became eligible for a new contract in late May, one year after he received an adjusted deal that gave him $5.5 million in incentives for 2017, which he earned in full. Despite reports of talks aimed at another effort to improve an $8 million compensation package for 2018, no deal has been done, yet.